230 SHOKT STALKS 



But tlie feature of tlie valley is the wonderful wall 

 wliicli encloses it. I know no cliffs so tall and so un- 

 compromisingly sheer as those that hem it in. Some of 

 them overhang so far at the top, that a stone, dropped 

 from the edge, will not touch for a thousand feet. In the 

 early spring they carry a fringe of pendent icicles, some- 

 times fifty feet long, and these huge spears, loosened by 

 the sun, descend with a prolonged whiz and crash audible 

 for miles. The reason for this overhano-ino; character of the 

 cliff's is, paradoxical as it may seem, the softness of the 

 strata composing them, because, when a stratum of greater 

 density overlies less durable material, the latter gets 

 weathered till the upper shelf projects. Also while some 

 strata are harder than the averao-e. others are so much more 

 friable that even the most perpendicular cliffs are scored 

 horizontally Iw what appear from below to l)e faint lines, 

 but are really narrow galleries or grooves, along which an 

 active animal, and sometimes a man, may pass in safety. 

 This feature has an important bearing on the particular 

 sport described in this chapter. 



Sometimes these galleries extend Ijackwards into the 

 rock, forming considerable caves, of the shape of a half- 

 opened oyster, in the face of the cliff or more often at its 

 base. In summer the Spaniards often select such a one, if 

 it happens to be in an accessiljle position, and liiTd a con- 

 sideral)le ffock under its shelterino- roof. Well I remember 

 one whicli I reached in the company of a lady who is an 

 excellent climber. It was high up on the face of one of 

 the tallest cliff's and looked out from it like a window in 

 a wall. It was approached by a narrow overhung shelf 

 whicli !('(! across the cliff. We sat at the back in the 



